Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Our March/April 2012 issue of our Nancy Drew and series books zine The Sleuth
is available! Preview the issue below and at our website. You
can subscribe there, purchase back issues, or send in a printable PDF form from the websiteto:

Nancy Drew Sleuths
P.O. Box 128Higley, AZ 85236-0128

Back
issue special $3.00 ea through May. 15, 2012. Not reflected at
the website, so send in checks or money orders to the above
address or send a Pay Pal to: nancydrewsleuth@aol.com or e-mail to
request an invoice (sleuths@ndsleuths.com). If in Canada, add
1.00 per issue for additional shipping. If Overseas, add 2.00 per issue
for additional shipping.

In This Issue:

Calling All Sleuths: Editor’s Note By Jennifer Fisher

The Kachina Doll Mystery Quiz By Kathy Ursich

The Many Faces of Nancy Drew: Playing Nancy Drew on the Big and Small Screens By Todd H. Latoski

Be sure you're ordering from the shop page only--marketplace orders do not count for this promotion, so if you're at the main website and/or using search boxes to add items to your cart, those are considered marketplace items. You must order from the Nancy Drew shop page itself. If you have any trouble with the code--contact Cafe Press customer support (there's a phone number you can call right away) and they can help you with it.

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Our last day of presentations began with my brief chat about using our websites and members only section - a tutorial which was hopefully helpful to those who haven't been too sure of getting around the website or finding things. It is a pretty user friendly website. I'll likely do more of these tutorials in Boston. Then I began my easy going presentation on Nancy Drew Sleuthing Scenes in which I put together a Power Point of various internal illustrations from the classic Nancy Drew series ranging from Russell H. Tandy to unknown illustrators. These scenes were some of my favorites showing Nancy Drew in sleuthing mode with snooping, eavesdropping, using her magnifying glass or flashlight, checking out footprints, catching villains or evading them, dumb criminals and much more!

AZ Sleuths presented me with a very lovely gift--an Eagle Kachina Doll, which was very much appreciated. I thank them very much for their kindness!

Our next speaker was Pamela Hancock who discussed Leslie McFarlane, original ghostwriter of the Hardy Boys Series and Haileybury where he hailed from in I Grew Up in Bayport. Her presentation, the photographs and maps and the tidbits about Haileybury were very fascinating!

After lunch, James D. Keeline enlightened us with a Tom Swift presentation: "What do I care for the principles of science?": Tom Swift and His Photo Telephone. It was very enjoyable as were the inventions and drawings!

Our last speaker was Lorraine Rogers whose presentation, The Gail Gardner Series by Margaret Sutton, was very entertaining and focused on this series, Margaret and a little bit about Lorraine's nursing career. See Lorraine above and in her uniform.

This year's Sleuth Con, a sub-convention of our regular Nancy Drew convention, was very well-rounded and fun! I think members who collect not only Nancy Drew, but other series, were fascinated by the various topics and many were inspired to try other series. Luckily between all the book shops and the book tables at the convention, there were many opportunities to purchase all kinds of series.

After we wrapped up the talks and the raffle and gave out the remaining prizes included the neat Hidden Staircase Nancy Drew stand up, some members on the decorating committee stayed behind to turn the room into our Kachina Doll barn dance complete with "barn siding," sombreros, Mexican paper flowers, and even a cowboy cutout and the phantom horse from Shadow Ranch. We hung the bright red/black silhouette panel of Nancy Drew above the gift exchange tables and set up 3 tables - one for handcrafted Nancy Drew items, one for store-bought Nancy Drew items, and an all-series table for non-Nancy Drew series book items. The Kachina Doll painting was brought down from the lobby of the hotel where it marked a bucket of treasure voucher coupons that if found, would be turned in at the party for a piece of the Shadow Ranch/Kachina Doll treasure.

The hotel set up the bar and dinner buffet--we would soon be dining on western fare--steak, chicken, beans, potatoes, salad, fruit, and assorted deserts and cobbler.

With our western theme, everyone began to arrive in costumes ranging from Victorian to the wild west to Nancy Drew characters like Nancy Drew from the 2nd art Bill Gillies Shadow Ranch and Mrs. Thurmond from revised text Shadow Ranch.

Even Frances Humber and Dirk Valentine made an appearance! So did Ms. Vicki Barr in her cute flight attendant outfit! There were quite a few Kachina Doll Nancy Drews running around too with their blue dresses and white shawls. And then there were people like me who threw on the cowboy boots and poured on the turquoise jewelry!

After dinner was served, our mysterious suspects finished out some of our clues skits and then everyone had a chance to turn in their answer to whodunit to win prizes. We put on one final reveal skit and it turned out that Penny Parker was the one who did it and not only did Nancy Drew turn out to not be a ghost after all, but it was her nemesis Gay Moreau from Lilac Inn who was the real victim of Penny's dastardly deeds. As Vicki Barr and Cherry Ames dragged off Penny Parker to jail, she screamed, "May you all age and grow wrinkles!" Thankfully Tom Swift piped up about his anti-aging invention and Judy Bolton, who was just turning 35, told everyone it wasn't so bad. ;-)

We began drawing for prizes and the first smarty pants answer received a goofy prize--which was a fake mustache to Peter who then paired up with A.B. to become Jesse & James. We also handed out bags of the treasure--fool's gold and a neat pewter Kachina Doll charm.

I was presented with a very neat gift from James and Kim Keeline of a decoupaged box featuring Nancy Drew imagery and a neat wine charm. Sleuth Kelly presented me with the neatest old-school 1934 flashlight with a Sleuth Con label. It was very sweet of everyone :)

After prizes ranging from totebags, mugs, buttons, jewelry, coin purses and clutch bags, puzzles, and subscriptions to The Sleuth were given out to those who guessed Penny Parker, we took a group photo and held the gift exchange. Lots of really neat gifts were given out ranging from Nancy Drew books to clocks to quilts, to jewelry, to a vintage Nancy Drew Rudy Nappi printer's proof, to decoupaged items. Quite a few were related to Shadow Ranch, one of our theme books. Here's a sampling of some of the gifts:

After the gift exchange, people began to filter off to their casitas to pack for the trip home. Several of the chums and I went back to their casita and opened a bottle of wine and toasted to a very successful convention! Everyone seemed to have the best time and the events flowed so well, and most important of all, everyone wants to attend another and so hopefully we'll see everyone next year!

Sunday, March 25:

Everyone visited one last time on the hotel's patio for breakfast the next morning before saying our goodbyes until next year. It's always kind of bittersweet at the end, sort of like at the end of each Nancy Drew mystery when she was wistful about the close of a mystery and hopeful for another to come along. Of course, we'll be on the case again next year in Boston for our 2013 Nancy Drew convention--sometime in May or June. We will iron out those details in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

We began our day with presentations in the morning and early afternoon. Our first speaker was David Baumann whose presentation The X Bar X Boys - Sons of the Golden West was very informative and interesting! One connection to Nancy Drew aside from being a Stratemeyer Syndicate series was that Nancy Drew ghostwriter Walter Karig also wrote for this series briefly.

Our next speaker was Dede Agosta and she did a comparison of Beverly Gray and Nancy Drew: Mystery, Adventure and Romance: The Nancy Drew & Beverly Gray Series, A Fan's Comparison. It was interesting for fans to see how similar (and not so similar) Nancy Drew and Beverly Gray are.

After lunch, the crowed was excited to see David Farah's presentation, Millie Benson and Her First Little Convention or Big Doings in Little Wabash which centered around the 1990 Phantom Friend event in Wabash in which Dave showed up with Millie Benson, Nancy Drew's first ghostwriter. Millie spoke to the fans and answered questions and signed books. Dave also gave a presentation at the event. So he shared stories behind the scenes and then he played the DVD of the event to everyone. He also gave out some mystery envelopes to everyone with interesting paper ephemera items related to Nancy Drew and Millie Benson.

After Dave's presentation we held a scrap handbag craft session where participants used cardstock, embellishments, buttons, and ribbon to scrap and alter discarded Nancy Drew pocketbook mystery bags. Here are some of the results:

The ever talented Scott Paulson from UCSD put on an old time Nancy Drew radio drama live that involved The Secret of Shadow Ranch and people reading roles from a script he wrote while combining that with sound effects of which Scott is a master at--he had several tables of various objects and instruments to create sound effects. He also used volunteers from the audience to work items to add sound effects--like bubble wrap for fireworks and some objects to make hoof beats plus an accordion. Everyone enjoyed participating! For those of you who didn't attend this year's event, it was certainly one of our super fun highlights of the whole convention!

Following the radio drama, Dave Farah was back to teach a Country & Western dance class to everyone who partnered up and learned various steps and then we danced! I thought everyone did a great job. After the dance, the Chums and I along with some others took Dave to the bar and grill for drinks and chatted for several hours about fascinating topics like the mysterious portions of a script in one of the mystery packets...

Be sure you're ordering from the shop page only--marketplace orders do not count for this promotion, so if you're at the main website and/or using search boxes to add items to your cart, those are considered marketplace items. You must order from the Nancy Drew shop page itself. If you have any trouble with the code--contact Cafe Press customer support (there's a phone number you can call right away) and they can help you with it.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

After leaving the Rockin' R Ranch Wednesday night, Sleuths Gina, Kelly and I headed off to my house to prepare for a very early visit from the local Phoenix NBC TV News Channel 12. They were coming out to the house to set up around 4am for the local morning show. They planned on having several live shots throughout the morning show. So we had a few (or in my case a couple) hours of sleep, drug ourselves downstairs and tried to be perky :) They arrived a little after 4am and set up the lights and camera. Morning news anchor Jaclyn Schultz did 2 segments with Gina, Kelly and I and they also did some highlights several times.

Here's the second segment they have online:

A little after 7am, we headed out to the resort to begin our first day of presentations a the Gold Canyon Golf Resort which started at 9am. We set up the room and people set up their tables. James and Kim Keeline had several tables of series books and Tom Swift items plus some of the new items from Palmer Street Press, his imprint at Lulu.com like the new Victor Horton's Idea which some in paperback and hardcover with dust jacket. He had copies of his Tom Swift Guide to Life and his Edward Stratemeyer calendar. Chums helpers set up the raffle tables and we decided to raffle off new items each day to keep it fresh. Leone set up her sales table area and had some fabulous deals going of $5 and $7 dollar books out of bins. Some people scored Penny Parkers, Penny Nichols, Madge Sterling, Ruth Darrow and many more. I managed to find a Brownie Scout, Cub Scout, and Girl Scout book I didn't have for my collection of Mildred Wirt Benson books and series.

Our speakers for the day were Lindsay Stroh, daughter of Margaret Sutton, whose presentation was Judy Bolton--Mysteries and Memories and she gave a very nice talk about the Judy Bolton series and her mother Margaret Sutton.

Following Lindsay was James D. Keeline whose presentation Mr. Carolyn Keene - The Men Behind Nancy Drew & The Dana Girls focused on the various men who have written under the Keene pseudonym. It was very informative.

After a lunch break, our next speaker was author Nancy Lauzon who writes the Chick Dick Mysteries. Her presentation, Anatomy of a Mystery Novel, was about writing and she used our Nancy Drew theme books as a backdrop.

Our last speaker of the day was Sleuth Kelly Boettlin who gave a really neat talk and power point on Lost But Not Forgotten Series Book Heroines and she inspired many who attended to try some new series.

FollowingCrafters took a plain photo mat and added images and scraps to create a nifty frame.

That evening we held a 2nd meet and greet for all the new people who had shown up fro just the weekend portion of the convention and had some meet and greet activities. Then everyone was given their clues booklets and the weekend mystery was explained to everyone. They would be looking for clues in skits and some that were hidden around the resort to try and solve a murder. There were also clues to treasure hidden around the resort. The mystery was based on our theme books, The Secret of Shadow Ranch and The Kachina Doll Mystery. Famous teen sleuths had come to the resort to help round up the villains at Shadow Ranch and at Kachina Resort, hoping to find the treasure and get part of the reward, when one sleuth was found murdered in her casita--Nancy Drew! Everyone attending got to play detective in trying to solve the mystery, some members played specific roles in the mystery and performed in clues skits throughout the weekend:

Jenn - Ghost of Nancy Drew

Kelly - Judy Bolton

Christine - Vicki Barr

Meredith - Cherry Ames

Gina - Bess Marvin

Mary - George Fayne

Elizabeth - Penny Parker

A.B. - Frank Hardy

James - Tom Swift

Kim - Trixie Belden

Everyone walked by flashlight (thanks Janis!) down a dark walkway up to an area of casitas where the first skit was performed and then the 2nd skit took place at the crime scene set up in my casita complete with crime scene tape across the door. Little evidence markers were placed by 10 clues for people to record in their clues booklets after the 2nd skit took place. Some clues included fingerprints, footprints, Tom Swift's Wizard Camera, a Hardy Boys book (Desert Giant), and some creepy crawly critters plus a warning note.

Friday, April 6, 2012

Wednesday was our Western/AZ day to celebrate our theme books, The Secret at Shadow Ranch and The Kachina Doll Mystery as well as other western series books and those set in Arizona. We started out at the Goldfield Ghost Town for the first par of the day. Members took part in our ode to The Amazing Race called The Amazing Case and they divided into groups.

Each group had to put together a puzzle of cattle brands and then decipher them into a phrase which read, "Green Bottle in Cellar." If they figured it out, they got their first clue which sent them on a race around the ghost town collecting other clues at various spots like the bakery, livery, rattlesnake exhibit, and the church which had the last clue. Then they raced down the town to the train depot to win the race. Winners got Shadow Ranch journals and Her Interactive Nancy Drew Computer Games. Everyone got little mini Shadow Ranch books and a reproduction of the letter that cowboy outlaw Dirk Valentine sent to Frances Humber about his treasure in Shadow Ranch.

After that, members toured the town, rode the train, visited the mine, went horseback riding, shopping, saw some rattlesnakes and other creatures, panned for gold, and ate lunch. We headed off to Canyon Lake on a very winding road that headed through the mountains with a nice view of the desert landscape and all the saguaro cacti. At Canyon Lake, we boarded the Dolly Steamboat for a relaxing nature cruise. The weather was perfect and we even spotted some big horn sheep up on the cliff edges as well as a bald eagle in its nest.

On the way to dinner, we stopped at an antique mall in Apache Junction, Patterns of the Past Antique Mall, and members checked out the various series books and antiques. Elizabeth found the perfect item--a fleur-de-lis watch pin, just like Nancy got in Shadow Ranch! It couldn't have been a more perfect find, though it didn't have a picture or any treasure clues inside ;-)

Our last stop was the Rockin' R Ranch in Mesa, AZ where we were treated to an old-time western town layout with a saloon with saddle seats, shops, and a shooting attraction. Don't mess with Kelly!

Finally it was time for dinner and we were sat in the VIP section near the stage. Dinner was BBQ beef and chicken, beans, baked potatoes, applesauce, spice cake, biscuits, and lemonade. Then the Rockin' R Wranglers put on an old time western cowboy stages how that was fun. Somehow some of us ended up on stage, though I tried to hide under the table. We managed to "attempt" to lasso with some rope. And feel silly! All in good fun!

Sleuth Mary took charge of everyone and the bus headed back to the resort. Kelly, Gina and I, however, were headed off in my trusty roadster...er...explorer on our own for another important mission...